WalkSafe

Idea

Introduction

We are WalkSafe, and our mission is to make the world a safer place for everyone.

Sadly, anybody can become a target of crime; dangers are a fact of life.

Our market research has shown that 4 out of 5 adults between the ages of 20 to 50 years old are greatly concerned about their safety when walking home late at night. And 68% of women worry about their personal safety at least once a week.

We believe awareness, knowledge & technology can help combat these ever-present dangers. That’s why we developed the WalkSafe App. With over 570k downloads, our App is used by those who want to keep safe 24/7, whether on a family walk, at leisure or coming home from work. By using police crime data, we’re helping users avoid recent crime hotspots and plan safer journeys.

But we are more than just an App. We are actively developing our business platform and safety seminars to help companies deliver their duty of care, as well as working on building partnerships with household names.

But we are more than just an App. We are actively developing our business platform and safety seminars to help companies deliver their duty of care, as well as working on building partnerships with household names. We have just launched our new partnership with Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I on a nationwide campaign to ‘get every Bud home safe’.

Substantial accomplishments to date

We are backed by Fearless Adventures who invested £100k at the start of the year. This campaign forms an extension to that round and we are delighted to be offering Seedrs investors the same terms as Fearless Adventures.

We are on track to deliver our 3-phase strategy.

Phase 1

We believe our aim of establishing media leadership has been achieved in the personal safety space.

Emma Kay, our founder, regularly features on TV, in newspapers and across social media as a leader in personal safety, making appearances on the BBC and Sky News. In June 2022, she launched ‘The TalkSafe Podcast’ Season 2, speaking to female founders and activists, as well as thought leaders in the safety space.

Additionally, Emma featured as a keynote panellist at MOVE and Ideas Fest 2022, hosted the successful event "Women Leading the Change in 2022”, and is a finalist at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2022.

Phase 2

Our WalkSafe consumer App has had 570,000 downloads. The new enhanced version, WalkSafe+, has a rating of 4.8 on the App Store, and mainstream publications such as Marie Claire and Stylist have published positive reviews.

The App provides a suite of personal safety tools, including street crime reports, a journey planner and the ability for trusted friends to view a user’s location and journey.

Our recent collaboration with Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I brings further awareness to the WalkSafe+ app, generating more downloads and allowing users to make informed decisions about their safety and feel confident when walking alone.

Phase 3

We are now developing additional products: cutting-edge safety awareness seminars (completed) and the WalkSafe business platform (in development).

Our WalkSafe Safety Awareness Seminars are delivered by senior ex-Scotland Yard detectives with advice from a former Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner. The WalkSafe business platform is being designed based on extensive and positive discussions with over 50 companies.

Monetisation strategy

We are focusing on three revenue streams for the business:

1. WalkSafe Business Platform: Our WalkSafe business platform will allow the newly launched WalkSafe+ App to be used by businesses to ensure their staff arrive home safely after work. This is especially applicable for out-of-hours workers and female professionals. Many companies have shown interest in paying for an integrated system so far.

2. Partnerships: We are in discussions with household names to advertise WalkSafe and appear on our App. Our most recent example is the partnership with Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I.

3. Safety Awareness Seminars: There is increasing media coverage and concern for employee safety walking to and from work. We have already taken our first booking for our safety awareness courses which feature senior ex-Scotland Yard detectives and leading experts in the field of safety.

Use of proceeds

Over the past 12 months, we have spoken with corporate businesses that recognise the need for a product that will help them deliver on their duty of care. These conversations have led to the development of the WalkSafe business platform.

The WalkSafe business platform is intended to enable staff to use the WalkSafe+ mobile App, while local managers monitor multiple employee journeys at one time to ensure their staff get home from work safely.

We intend to gather feedback from pilot studies to help refine the platform and we will be using funds from this raise to bring the product to market.

Allocation of Funds

47% Research and development of the WalkSafe business platform
22% Servers and operations
16% Marketing and sales promotion
15% Operational staff

Funds reflected as part of this round have been raised over the past 6 months and may have been spent in line with the use of proceeds set out above.